2013: Year of the Armed Citizen

With Barack Obama now promising to put his “full weight” behind gun control next year, the clear response should be for the blogosphere to respond with a concerted effort to highlight how law-abiding citizens use legal weapons for self-defense and crime deterrence, and not just for hunting. It ought to be the new year’s resolution in fact. (Yes, given that the rail-thin Obama’s “full weight” wouldn’t budge a half-full Whole Foods shopping cart, maybe this is another of his clever empty boasts, but still.)

Every issue of The American Rifleman, the NRA’s magazine, contains a feature on “The Armed Citizen,” with true stories reflecting the title of crimes thwarted. For example, the latest typical Armed Citizen item goes as follows:

After locking up, a female employee of Cakes and Confections 4U was leaving the business through a back door when she realized she was cornered by two strange men. One man struck her in the jaw while the other ripped off her necklace and earrings. When the men then attempted to sexually assault the woman, she produced a concealed .32 cal. firearm from her waistband and fired. Both men immediately dropped the stolen jewelry and ran. It was last reported that the assailants were still at large. After the incident, the woman said her firearm saved her life and that she had a strong message to all women, “If you don’t have a gun or you’re scared of guns, get familiar with them and get a gun.”

Now, I’m going to go way out on a limb here here and estimate that the number of journalists who read The American Rifleman in the newsrooms of our elite media outlets (NY Times, WaPo, LA Times, ABNBCBS, CNN, etc) is, in approximate round numbers, zero. And since the media is actively hostile to the Second Amendment anyway, they won’t report these stories in any case. So we’ll need to do it loudly and often. Power Line readers are invited to send in their own stories in the comment thread here, or pass along stories reported in their local press.

I’ll go first. Some months ago a cousin of mine at an ATM machine had a knife put to his back, along with the demand for all his money. Unfortunately for the assailant, my cousin, an off-duty Army MP, was packing his piece. The assailant is now in jail, and my cousin still has his wallet.

Meanwhile, some clever person going by the handle “ma5one” has produced this video skewering the hypocrisy of the Hollywood left on this issue. Yeah, I know, low-hanging nuts, but still. . . (Warning: Language alert—sort of like most Hollywood movies.)